March 7th, 2012: Gustavsson’s most recent mistake using VHS. Though not technically a disease, the use of the Vertical-Horizontal Stance (VHS) has become a debilitating condition for several goaltenders across the league, and for some time, it has been my own casual observation that Gustavsson has been too easily victimized in this position throughout the year. In…

As many of our regular readers are by now probably already aware, I am a teacher by trade. At the moment, I teach a smattering of different grades and subjects, including a grade five English class where hockey discussions often get heated. It’s not uncommon for these discussions to find their way into the journal…

I think most of us can recognize that the Leafs currently have more trouble preventing goals than they do scoring them, but that doesn’t mean that Brian Burke shouldn’t add to his forward corps if a good player comes available. It wouldn’t take a Rick Nash or a Dustin Brown to improve this current Leafs’…

If you’re a top-six forward and Joey Crabb has doubled your goal production despite playing 10 fewer games, it’s a pretty safe bet that things haven’t exactly been going your way. But add to that the fact that this is a contract year and you are losing yourself future dollars by the day, and things look…

Really, the only thing that Burke has emphatically said that he wants to acquire in the coming weeks is more size for his top-six. It’s not a bad idea per se, but the Leafs’ defense hasn’t exactly been stellar and their goaltending situation is questionable to say the least. In short, I’m somewhat surprised that…

How many times have you been watching your team carry a lead, only to have the commentators announce that the opposing team has scored most of their goals in a later period? Listen, I get it; the talking heads on TV have to maintain a certain level of suspense. They can’t very well say "It’s…

It wasn’t so long ago that I thought the NHL had seen the last of Jonas Gustavsson. That is, I figured the Leafs would hang on to him for the rest of the season, but I never forsaw a time when he would take games like last night’s away from James Reimer. I even considered…

In my last article, I wrote about how the Leafs have allowed significantly more goals so far this season than last, but that this year, the Leafs’ forwards have compensated by scoring a whole lot more. The truth is, I should have said that the team has scored more goals than last year – it…

This year for the Maple Leafs Annual (may it R.I.P.) my contribution was a preview of the Leafs’ defence. I predicted then that they would be marginally better than last year’s incarnation, with the addition of Cody Franson taking Brett Lebda’s place as the extra defender, and John-Michael Liles filling Tomas Kaberle’s shoes more or…

Yes, Ron Wilson’s contract extension is a show of faith by Brian Burke in his coach, that much is obvious. That Burke offered his coach an extension so early in the season (November) is a somewhat larger show of confidence. Moreover, in all of his years of being a General Manager, Burke has only once…

When the Leafs walked out of Dallas with a 4-3 shootout win, it was apparent to anyone who watched the game that the boys from Toronto were lucky to walk away with one point, let alone two. Jonas Gustavsson was good enough and lucky enough to hold the fort, and a couple players other…